Wish-I’d-said-that Dep’t: Krugman on Ryan

Think of Medicare as a footbridge that is deteriorating and will eventually become unsafe. You could propose structural repairs to fix its faults; Ryan doesnâ€™t do that. Instead, he proposes knocking the bridge down and replacing it with trampolines, in the hope that pedestrians can bounce across the stream.

Think of Medicare as a footbridge that is deteriorating and will eventually become unsafe. You could propose structural repairs to fix its faults; Ryan doesnâ€™t do that. Instead, he proposes knocking the bridge down and replacing it with trampolines, in the hope that pedestrians can bounce across the stream.

Krugman also points out the absurdity of politicians and pundits who have succeeded in terrifying the nation with an almost entirely mythical crisis in public spending then turning around and accusing Democrats who point out the actual implications of the Ryan plan of using “scare tactics.”

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The EconomistAgainst Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA HomepageCurriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman

3 thoughts on “Wish-I’d-said-that Dep’t: Krugman on Ryan”

Yeah, it’s hard to “fix” something you don’t really believe in at a fundamental level. Ditto most other government programs. It’s like taking your car to a mechanic who wants to destroy your car. (Or, cynically – one who just wants to rip you off.)

(Kleiman): “Krugman … points out the absurdity of politicians and pundits who have succeeded in terrifying the nation with an almost entirely mythical crisis in public spending…”
Professor Krugman words would carry more weight if he had not changed sides on the deficit question after a Democrat won the White House.
(Kleiman): “…then turning around and accusing Democrats who point out the actual implications of the Ryan plan of using ‘scare tactics’.â€
Free marketeers feel the same way about advocates for government programs who prefer tax-subsiidized State-monopoly enterprises to unsubsidized, profit-oriented providers in a competitive market and predict “misry for the poor and middle class” or a collapse of the US economy“. In abstract, the decision between the command economy and the market economy turns on the relative merits of State-monopoly enterprise versus competitive markets in goods and services.